First bet

As you will know from my last blog post, I have now deposited my £100 with a bookmaker and have started to place bets, but what am I betting on.

The first four bets are as follows:-

- Donal NOT to get a perfect 30 score in the final of dancing on ice.
Odds – 1.05
- Anderson Silva to win his bout at UFC 97
Odds – 1.18
- Lewis Hamilton to finish higher than Jenson Button over the 2009 F1 season.
Odds – 1.57
- The next general election to be January 2010 or later.
Odds – 1.20

Don’t worry for now if you don’t understand the odds, I will explain this in my next post.

As previously stated, all the bets were placed with a £1 stake.  Three are still open, UFC in on 19th April, the F1 season ends in November while I will have to wait to next year (assuming I win) to know the next election will be January 2010 or later.  The fourth bet has already been settled as the final of Dancing on Ice was on Sunday night and my return (including stake) is a whopping £1.05.

Now 5p profit may not seem much, but lets put it in the context of this experiment.  On my last post I detailed the interest rates available if I put the money in a savings account, the best of which was just 3.61% AER.  If the pound I had bet had been put in the savings account for a year I would have earned just 3.61p in interest.  Yet with this bet, that same £1 has earned me 5p or 5% return.  So from a gambling point of view, what would be seen as very poor odds and return has from an investment point of view produced a reasonable return.